The owners of the San Francisco 49ers have reached an agreement to sell about 6% of the NFL franchise to a trio of Bay Area families at a valuation higher than $8.5 billion, according to a person familiar with the details, the highest valuation ever for a global sports team in a transaction.
The buyers are the Khosla family, the Griffith family and Deeter family, said the person, who was granted anonymity because the details are private. The Khosla family is buying the biggest stake, the source said, but it is unclear exactly how the 6% is being broken up between the three.
The NFL’s finance committee has reviewed the deals, though they still require more formal approval. A representative for the 49ers declined to comment. Attempts to reach the three families weren’t immediately successful.
The 49ers are owned by the York family. Sportico values the team at $6.86 billion.
The transaction continues a trend of recent minority stake sales in the world’s most valuable sports league. While the NFL opened its ownership ranks to private equity last year, some continue to prioritize individual investors. The Eagles recently sold two minority stakes to individuals at an $8.1 billion valuation. The New York Giants are in the market looking to sell about 10%, and the current owners’ preference is for high-net-worth individuals, not institutional funds, Sportico previously reported.
Billionaire Vinod Khosla is co-founder of Sun Microsystems. He is worth $8.1 billion, according to Forbes. Byron Deeter is a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners in San Francisco. Will Griffith is a founding partner at Iconiq Growth in Palo Alto, Calif.
